


Sometimes Things Don't go as Planned

by KazooBoyTM



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Adopted Family Relationship, Angst, Arguing, Based on a song, Foolish is mentioned like once and not by name, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mother-Son Relationship, Prison, Strained Friendships, c!dream needs therapy lmao, no beta we die like Friend and their infinite canon lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:41:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazooBoyTM/pseuds/KazooBoyTM
Summary: Puffy visits her duckling in Pandora's Vault. She wants to help him heal, but will he let her?
Relationships: Cara | CaptainPuffy & Clay | Dream, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 163





	Sometimes Things Don't go as Planned

**Author's Note:**

> I speedran writing this in 24 hours again oops. Also rated teen for mild swearing.
> 
> Heavily based on (this) song.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2v5Nwn2qrQ
> 
> Disclaimer that c!Dream is dealing with some serious mental health issues here and has been declining for awhile. I’m not using mental health to excuse his actions in any way but yeah he’s in a very not good mental state. Puffy please get this man some therapy.
> 
> Also sorry if the ending seems rushed at all

“Follow me.”

The echo of Puffy’s leather boots on blackstone steps was drowned out by the ever increasing resonance of churning magma. Beads of sweat pooled off her forehead and unpleasant heat encircled her body despite how she felt on the inside. Cold. Ice cold and trembling in fear of what would await her inside that cell.

“Stand here. Face forward.” Sam’s voice rang out just loud enough that the lava wouldn’t swallow it on its way to her ears. “I’m going to drain the lava. Be patient.” She had to admit- Sam was good at keeping up the warden demeanor. Not once had he faltered in his cold unwavering tone or stoic movements while leading her through every step of the process. She’d had to sign waivers that made her stomach churn at the implications of their contents and faced trial after unpleasant to downright painful trial.

She knew she could’ve turned back at any point: she could have told Sam that she’d changed her mind. She didn’t want to see the prisoner anymore, and he would’ve let her run away without question. But she didn’t.

She’d go through it all again and again to see her duckling.

Her broken little manipulative bastard of a son.

She wasn’t his biological mother, of course. There’s no way a sheep hybrid could’ve produced a totem god along with whatever Dream was. But she loved them both as if they were her children.

Even if they hurt her.

She wished she could just stop caring about Dream and take it all back- she wished he never would’ve followed her around like a lost puppy and made her care. Sometimes she wondered if he ever cared about her at all, or if even then he intended to betray her trust and shatter her heart.

Yet here she was, visiting him in a maximum security prison.

The wall of heat in front of her is starting to dissipate and- holy shit that’s a ton of lava. No wonder it took so long. Her next breath hangs in her throat when she sees him.

He was unrecognizable from the proud man he once was except for the half broken and burnt mask that covered the left side of his features and hung limply. Hair that he refused to ever grow past his shoulders hung down to the middle of his chest. Her once friendly shadow was withering away in a prison cell of his own design. The distance failed to hide how the prison uniform clung to his form loosely. It looked like it once had fit him but not anymore.

She wanted to burst into tears and hold him tight, but no. He brought this upon himself. This was his punishment. She had to be strong.

Sam’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “You need to move along with the platform. Don’t fall off. You can enter the prisoner’s cell once the lava comes down again.” She yelped as the floor beneath lurched forward and she scrambled to run with it. She took step after step with her gaze pinned to the heat below. A shaky breath released from her lungs when the floor finally collided with obsidian on the other side. 

The bubbling screams of magma was deafening as she kept her gaze locked on the solid netherite barrier that separated them.

It was the longest wait of her life but finally the barrier dissipated into the floor, and she forced her body to turn its head to take a proper look at her duckling.

He was even worse up close. Dream’s hair was tangled and matted and singed at the ends, still charred from who knows what event took place before her arrival. Fresh burns scattered across his sickly pale skin and newly sunken in features. His eyes burned through the floor like it was taking every ounce of strength to not look at the woman standing in front of him.

“You look tired.” Puffy broke the barrier of silence between them with a sad smile.

“What are you doing here?” Faded hope in green inhuman eyes finally locked with her own hopeful ones. Dream’s voice shook ever so slightly with fear, anger, or sadness Puffy didn’t know, and she wouldn’t press on which it was.

“I wanted to see you.” Instead of returning what venom he’d poured out to her, she chose to temper her voice with softness and concern. “I wanted to see how my little duckling was.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either. She already knew he wouldn’t be in the best state of mind.

He’d done terrible, terrible things. He deserved to be locked up. He deserved to be punished for his crimes and manipulation. But he was still as deserving as everyone else on the server of help. And as the server’s much needed soon-to-be therapist she would be the one to offer her hand.

“Why?” 

“Why wouldn’t I want to see-”

“-To taunt me?” Lifelessness faded to anger and Dream stepped back, taking Puffy’s shocked silence as a clear answer. “I knew it. Fine.” his shoulders drooped and his gaze sunk through the floor. “Get it over with then. Tell me everything i’ve done wrong.”

It stung her heart to watch her ducking like this. Angry and obviously hurting. “I.. think you and I both know everything you’ve done wrong.” She reasoned, stepping forward and gently placing fingertips lightly on his shoulders. “You’ve done a lot of really, really awful things. But I want to help you become a better person.” She mustered up a smile.

Dream was silent for a moment, then he burst out laughing like she’d just told him the funniest joke in the world. “Oh I get it.” He said between unnerving giggles. He pushed her away with what remained of his strength. “You’re trying to ‘save’ me!” What? Where did he get that idea? “You don’t actually care or anything. You just want to be a ‘hero’ right?” He punctuated his words in sharp malice.

“No no no no, i’m not trying to ‘save’ you.” God, how was she going to salvage this? Dream clearly had his mind set. “I care about you.”

He rolled his eyes. “I hurt you! I pushed everyone away! Why the hell would you care about me?” Puffy could see he was hurt. Hurt and angry and letting the emotions he’d buried deep deep down for so long spill out onto the floor for both of them to see. He clenched his fists. “If you cared so much then why weren’t you there for me when I needed you?”

“What? I-”

“Nobody was ever there for me!” His voice raised and cracked and shattered in several places. He absentmindedly tugged at his roots with shaking hands.“Really? You suddenly care now that it’s convenient for you? Why not reach out when I started to cut people off? Or- or-”

“I did what I could for you, Dream!” Puffy was the one to cut him off this time. “You were homeless! I went out of my way to build you a house! I never even got a thank you!” She paused to compose herself. “I’m.. sorry about that.” She continued. “But I always cared about you, and I'm sorry I didn't know how much you were hurting at the time but now I know so please-”

“Let me help you.”

Silence.

Then, “Get out.”

“No.”

“Leave.” All the emotion that had poured out of him moments ago was gone.

“No! I’m not leaving you here like this!” Puffy tried to reason.

“Sam! She’s ready to go!” Before she could protest any more Dream had already caught Sam’s attention.

"Don't come back." Were the last words he said to her before she was whisked away from her son's personal obsidian hell.

* * *

“So how did it go?” Sam asked once Puffy retrieved her items and they’d made their way back to the prison entrance.

She sighed. “It went.. well.” She couldn't say the truth. It had gone both better and worse than she had expected in various ways. She had to process the interaction before telling anyone about it.

Sam only nodded in response. They walked in silence for a good few minutes as Puffy went over the day’s events in her head.

On one hand, it was horrible watching as her duckling suffered and she did nothing. She debated on asking Sam how much he feeds him but decided against it. On the other, Dream made it clear that he didn’t want her help. He wasn’t willing to change.

But Puffy knew he could.

He just needed time and someone to be patient.

“Oh! Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“When can I schedule another visit?”


End file.
